In many ways, shutter speed is an inaccurate term. I read an article a few years ago and the photographer referred to shutter speed as shutter time. The logic was spot on. A shutter always opens or closes at the same “speed”. The key value is how long the shutter stays open, hence shutter time. On Canon cameras the shutter speed function (shutter priority) on the mode dial is abbreviated to Tv, which stands for “Time Value”, and is a more accurate description of what this article is about. I am going to refer to shutter time as opposed to shutter speed, it sounds crazy, but it will make more sense. The reason this definition is important is because, we are going to be looking at how you can use the time that the shutter is open (and gathering light onto the sensor) creatively.

In a sense, shutter time is a bit like time travel. You camera’s shutter can open and shut in 1/8000th of a second. Think about that. Take one second, divide it by 8000 and one of those units is the time your shutter was open. That is very quick. On the other end of the spectrum, you can shoot super long exposures of 20 or 30 minutes. That means the shutter stays open for that length of time. Again, amazing. Think of all that light falling onto the sensor during that time, and the images that can be created doing so.

The shutter time becomes more than simply a moment in time, it could be a split second (literally) or a few seconds. The resulting image will capture and freeze the moment or, with a longer shutter time, there will be blurred movement. This is the fun part of photography. In many ways, your camera can “see” events that happen which you cannot. The camera can capture a frozen moment and suspend your subject in that moment forever, this is like magic. The compelling images are amazing to see and are reasonably easy to make, so let’s take a look at a few of them and see how they are done.

6 Ways to Use Shutter Speed Creatively

1. Freezing the moment

These are the images we all know about; ones that have captured a frozen moment in time. Normally these are sports images, the winning goal, or the knockout punch connecting. They are intriguing to most people and are compelling because we can’t freeze the moment in our eyes. We see a moving, continuous rendition of the events happening in front of us. You have seen “slo-mo” shots of the winning goal; the frozen moment image is that equivalent.

These images take a bit of practice to get right. Lets assume for a moment, you are photographing a soccer match. It is great to get action shots, but you will want to get any shots of the teams scoring goals. You will then need to have the correct lens. Insports photography, it will be a pretty long zoom or telephoto lens. Most sports photographers will use 400mm and longer. You will also need to keep your camera steady. A tripod in these cases is somewhat impractical as you need to be able to move the camera quickly and easily to follow the game. A monopod is normally what works best.

Depending on the lighting conditions you need to make sure you have a shutter time that captures the players in mid-action. You also need to take the lighting into consideration. If you are shooting in an outdoor arena, the natural light may be sufficient, but if you are in an indoor arena, you might need to be more aware of your exposure. In that case, you may need to push your ISO up high enough to allow you to freeze your subject. In most sports 1/1500th of a second is the starting point for freezing action. In very fast sports like ice hockey, soccer, rugby and so on, you may need to be shooting at even faster speeds than that. This is how you set up the shots.

Technique

How to do it: Set your aperture to an aperture setting of f/2.8 or f/4.5. This will allow for a quicker shutter time, which will in turn freeze the action. If you are shooting a sporting event in the sunlight, you may need to have your shutter time set to 1/1500 or faster. If this is still not freezing the action, make the shutter time even quicker. Try and anticipate the action and release the shutter at the moment you think it will happen. Be aware that your focus will need to be spot on. With a wide aperture, you run the risk of misfocusing and missing a shot. I once heard a sports photographer say this ” If you see the goal in your viewfinder, you missed the shot”. When you do get that shot though, it will be worth it.

2. The decisive moment

Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the phrase, “The Decisive Moment”. Do a google image search on Cartier-Bresson and the decisive moment, you will see many of his great images. He was well known as a street and people photographer, and he believed that you need to choose the precise moment when something happens to hit the shutter release. As you can imagine, this is not easy. Sometimes this might mean you need quick reflexes. Most of the time, it requires patience. He would often set up the shot, get the framing right and then wait. You don’t want to wait for hours, but be patient, sit there for 20 or 30 minutes and watch the scene. Take note of how people are moving into, and out of your frame. When time is right, or the perfect subject (person, vehicle, animal, whatever you choose) moves into the best position, release your shutter at that moment. This will take practice and more than a few shots to get it right, but when you do, you will be ecstatic. The shot will look candid, but you will know what it took to get that image. Many people assume Cartier-Bresson’s images were simply shot quickly from the hip, but much of the time they were planned and he waited patiently for the decisive moment.

Technique

How to do it: You need to think of a scene you would like to capture, visualize it. You may want to capture the comings and goings at a coffee shop in your city. You may want to have someone with a red coat sitting outside, sipping coffee. You should then set up and frame your shot, then sit there until the scene unfolds. Someone with a yellow jacket may sit down, which might work too. So be flexible, but be patient, sooner or later the shot will unfold.

What operation on a camera could possibly be more simple than pressing the shutter button to take a picture? There’s not much to it, really – you look through the viewfinder (or at the LCD screen on the back of the camera), press a button with your index finger, wait for the camera to focus, and voilà! You’ve got a photo.

Well, as the popular saying goes, what if I told you there was a better way? Hidden deep within the settings of most cameras is a feature called Back Button Focusing, and enabling it can transform your approach to photography.

A Brief History

To understand what Back Button Focusing is, it’s important to know a little about the history of the autofocus function on your camera. Until the mid-1980s, there was no such thing as autofocus on consumer-level film cameras. You had to hold your camera up to your eye and either turn a ring on the outside of the lens or adjust what’s known as a rangefinder in the top-left corner. It required a great deal of patience and practice, and there are many photographers today that still swear by this method.

In 1985 Minolta released the Maxxum 7000 which integrated the autofocus function into the shutter button, which seemed like a sensible choice because you would normally want to make sure the camera was focused before taking a photo. This implementation of autofocus worked well, but required a bit of maneuvering if the photographer wanted to focus on something other than what was in the center of the photo. To do that, he or she would have to aim the camera at the object to be in focus, carefully hold the shutter button down halfway to keep the focus locked while re-composing the shot, then pushing the button all the way when the picture was ready.

This system remains in place on most cameras today, and it’s probably how your own camera operates. At this point you might be wondering why you should bother to change something that has worked perfectly well for the past 30 years.

The answer is because there really is a better way to focus your camera before you take a picture, and it was invented by Canon in 1989. On their EOS 630 camera they included an option within the camera’s custom settings menu to separate the actions of focusing and snapping the shutter. Users could tell the camera to use a separate button on the back of the camera to handle focusing duties, which left the shutter button to do one thing and one thing alone: take the picture. It was not an immediately obvious feature, and it never really caught on like Canon may have hoped, but the same capability is in every Canon DSLR today as well as virtually all cameras from other manufacturers like Nikon, Pentax, Sony, and the rest. If you have any sort of DSLR or mirrorless camera there is probably an option in your settings menu to enable Back Button Focus, and it’s something I highly recommend trying out.

Back Button Focus requires your thumb to press a button on the back of your camera (hence the name) and your index finger to press the shutter, which does take a few days to get used to, but soon becomes second nature. All this begs the question – why should you re-learn how to do something as basic as focusing your camera when the shutter half-press works perfectly fine? The answer lies in the overall concept of giving more control back to you, the photographer.

More Creative Freedom

Cameras today have a dizzying array of autofocus points – those little dots or squares that light up in the viewfinder when you press the shutter button down halfway. You also have a ton of options in how you use these points. You can select an individual point, you can have the camera select what it thinks is the best one, you can tell your camera to use some of them in conjunction with one another, and many cameras have modes such as automatic face detection as well. To be honest, all these options works really well. But just know that by decoupling the act of focusing from the shutter button, and moving it to a separate button, you will be able to do a lot more with your photography than you may realize.

By using a button on the back to focus, you will no longer have to hunt around for the specific autofocus point you want to use or wait for the camera to focus on what it thinks you want to before allowing you to take a picture. Trying to keep a moving subject in focus while deftly holding the shutter down halfway is a feat of dexterity that would keep Legolas himself at bay. This is easily remedied by using back button focus. With this method you can hold the back button down as long as you want, which keeps your camera continually focusing on your subject, until you are good and ready to snap a photo. This is incredibly useful when your subject is in motion, whether people, animals, mechanical objects, or simply a flower petal meandering across a meadow.

One of my favorite cameras is the Nikon D7100, which has 51 autofocus points that cover almost the entire frame. For a while I used all of them, frantically shifting from one to the next as I adjusted each shot or tried to track a moving subject. It worked fairly well, especially in conjunction with Nikon’s 3D subject tracking algorithm (variants of that can be found in most cameras today) which did a good job of keeping my subject in focus whether it moved or I altered my perspective. But I found that I often messed up some critical shots because I was either too busy changing the autofocus point, or letting my camera decide what it thought should be in focus. Switching to back button focus remedied all of this, and helped me gets shots that would have been much more difficult otherwise.

Peter Lockley is a sports and portrait photographer who works with editorial and corporate clients to create dynamic and story telling images. Peter began his career at the University of Colorado, majoring in journalism and fine art. After graduating in 2003, he spent five years as the chief sports photographer for the Washington Times, covering four major sports teams and five local colleges. He has since gone on to work with clients like ESPN the Magazine, the Colorado Rockies, Clarkson Creative, and the NCAA. Peter currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife Emily.

Founded by legendary Sports Illustrated photographer and former National Geographic Director of Photography Rich Clarkson, the Summit Series of Workshops has featured some of the best photographers and editors in the country for nearly three decades.

Their team recently launched a series of online classes at www.summitonline.co. The lessons cover lighting, sports, nature, and adventure photography, and feature many of the instructors who teach at their live workshops. I was given the opportunity to watch one of those tutorials, “Inside an Editor’s Mind, with Brad Smith.”

Brad Smith is currently the Director of Photography at Sports Illustrated and has over 20 years of experience under his belt, including past positions at the White House and the New York Times.

His course covers all of the work that goes into covering a big event (in this case, Olympic swimming) from initial prep with the photographers to final edits for the magazine.

The world of sports is mourning the passing of Dean Smith, who died February 7, 2015 at the age of 83. Smith was called a “coaching legend” by the Basketball Hall of Fame after an illustrious career that included 36 years as the North Carolina Tar Heels men’s basketball coach. Though he is best known for his days coaching the Tar Heels, Smith grew up in Kansas and attended the University of Kansas, playing basketball and eventually coaching as an assistant. Summit Workshops’ Founder Rich Clarkson had the rare priviledge of traveling with the team as a photographer while attending the University of Kansas, where he occasionally roomed with none other than Dean Smith. Clarkson also had the rare priviledge of following and photographing Smith’s career from player to head coach.

Sports Illustrated has recently released their Dean Smith Special Tribute Issue, and it includes several of Rich Clarkson’s favorite images from throughout Smith’s career. Thank you to Sports Illustrated and Director of Photography Brad Smith for creating a truly memorable issue and allowing us to share an excerpt from it.

In the summer of 2014, Gary Lloyd McCullough came to Colorado Springs to take part in the Summit Sports Photography Workshop. It was there that he met the esteemed faculty and staff that would help take his photography to the next level. The former Summit student utilitized those tips and information and landed a photo in the “Leading Off” section in Sports Illustrated magazine.

In McCullough’s own words, he describes the Sports Photography Workshop as well as the faculty and staff that provided him with the information and tips necessary to accomplish the now-published photograph.

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“Arriving in Colorado Springs for a week of what is the world’s most respected sports photography workshop, I was overwhelmed.

Vendors, industry leading photographers in numerous specialties, publishing gatekeepers, and living legends like the workshop founder, Rich Clarkson — you don’t want to miss anything including late-night cavorting with sports photography trailblazers.

I came to the workshop with an idea for a first-ever sports photo opportunity, making an image of a live NFL game from underwater. Off-season improvements to the Jacksonville Jaguars home field included two pools from where fans are able to watch the game through a Plexiglas wall.

I specifically received shot-making advice for this idea from:

Jody Grober, Director of Professional and Commercial Sales at Roberts Distributors with advice as to where best to rent the underwater housing.

Deanne Fitzmaurice, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2005, expounded from her personal experience to expect obstacles and persist despite setbacks. (The team’s management told me “no” to access to the pool at least six times.)

Mark Terrill, Associated Press photographer with unparalleled innovation with remotes shared how lenses work underwater and how water affects focus.

Chip Litherland, award-winning photographer based in Sarasota, Florida, who gave me insight as to gaining access.

Brad Smith, Director of Photography for Sports Illustrated, answered my emails and calls to guide my photo into publication. It would take much more room than I have to list all the instructors, vendors, and fellow students that encouraged me and shared experiences and insights in regard to creating this image. The July 2014 Summit Sports Photography Workshop made this image happen; the first underwater images of a live NFL football game. Summit also provided me with a dream come true in seeing my first image published in the print version of Sports Illustrated. It will appear in the “Leading Off” section ofthe December 8, 2014 issue.

Thank you Mr. Clarkson and crew. I certainly got more than I expected from my week with you.”

This year we have brought some alumni back to the fold of the workshops to assist the faculty and staff throughout the week as a chance to come back and increase their education and networking through the Summit Series.

Mark Mahan, Sports ’12 & Lighting ’14, had some great insight into his mentor experience:

I had a great time coming back to Summit Sports Workshop as a mentor. I attended in 2012 as a student learning skills and concepts that gave me the confidence to call the photo editor at the local paper when I returned home.

Attending the workshop helped open that door, through which I was able to go on and become a regular free lancer for the newspaper. I wanted to come back to the Sports workshop because it felt like a safe place, a place where people love photography and want to improve their craft. It also gave me a chance to measure my growth, reconnect with faculty, get out of my comfort zone and renew my vision.

The best part of returning to the workshop were listening to faculty give critiques of the student images and seeing what the faculty presentations in the evenings. I love to see other photographers look at images and talk about what works or what doesn’t.

I think anyone that has attended a Summit workshop could benefit from being a mentor. The best way to perfect a craft, in my opinion, is two fold, one is practice, and the other is giving back. Being in a place where having more experience than attendees but not to the level of faculty refreshed ideas I had heard before as well as spawn new ones.The first time I attended the amount of information and the schedule were almost overwhelming, and to be able to go back and hear with a fresh set of ears was incredibly helpful. And besides, it it the best week with nearly no sleep of the year! A special thanks to Rich, and all the faculty for creating such a unique place to learn photography that is not only theory, but that applies in the real world.

Jen Edney, Sports ’04 , Adventure ’08 ’11 & Nature ’06 ’13, also had some great things to say about her time with the mentorship:

Every time I have come to a workshop as a student or, in this case, as a mentor, it has only pushed me forward in the right direction. Whether it’s learning to use a DSLR for the first time (I had never touched or seen one before my first workshop!) learning a new lighting technique, pitching a story or how to best utilize social media in marketing my business, i’ve always come away re-inspired and charged up. For me, it’s a chance to check in with myself to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of my business.

The people & relationships built are what I enjoyed most. The camaraderie, passion, inspiration and stimulation is what I love about this workshop. Everyone is there for a reason and it shows throughout the week amongst the faculty, staff and students. The unique thing about the Summit Series of Workshops is the emphasis not only on soaking up all you can throughout the day with photo shoots, critiques and class time, but also on social time, interaction with the faculty, staff and students.

To me, that time is priceless and one of the most important aspects of the workshop.This community has helped so much in my growth both as an individual and professional. I believe in paying it forward and giving back to the community, in this case, with my time and what I’ve learned over the years. Being a Summit Mentor is a great way to stay involved, to continue to inspire and be inspired by this amazing community.

DURHAM, NC (September 29, 2014) – The Board of Directors of the National Press Photographers Foundation today is pleased to announce the creation of a new annual scholarship, The Rich Clarkson Founders Scholarship.

“The Foundation is so honored that Rich Clarkson has chosen NPPF to establish a scholarship in his name,” Foundation president Tom Hardin said today. “Rich is the most important voice, mentor, and leader that photojournalism has known.”

The first Clarkson Founders Scholarship $2,000 stipend will be awarded in mid-2015, Hardin said. As with most NPPF scholarships, the deadline for entry will be in early March of each year through the Foundation’s Web site.

“On the eve of The Foundation’s 40th anniversary, the Rich Clarkson Founders Scholarship is a testament to his commitment to photojournalism education,” Hardin said. “This scholarship will enable future generations of student photojournalists to commit to professionalism, excellence, and generosity as practiced for so many years by Rich Clarkson.”

Executive director Chip Deale also offered NPPA’s thanks to Clarkson for this new educational opportunity.

“The leadership of NPPA and I join with the foundation in expressing our gratitude to Rich Clarkson for his generosity that has made this new scholarship possible,” Deale said. “Rich is one of visual journalism’s true legends, and the scholarship will ensure his lasting legacy to a profession to which he has contributed so much in so many ways for such a prolonged period.”

There will be a three-person scholarship committee established to choose the Clarkson scholarship winner, Hardin said. The selection committee will look for a person whose work ethic demonstrates the highest level of professionalism and leadership as a photojournalism student. As with all NPPF scholarships, applicants for the Clarkson scholarship must be enrolled in an accredited 4-year college or a university, either as an undergraduate or graduate student.

For 25 years Clarkson was the director of photography for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He also led the photography and art departments at The Denver Post as assistant managing editor/graphics, and he was National Geographic magazine’s director of photography and senior assistant editor in the 1980s.

Clarkson has been a contract and contributing photographer for Sports Illustrated magazine throughout his long career. More than 30 Sports Illustrated covers have displayed his photographs – the first in 1964. This year in Dallas he photographed his 59th NCAA Final Four Men’s basketball championship. Through the years Clarkson has captured the dramatic and storytelling moments at sporting events, especially at college basketball and track and field competitions, and he has covered six Olympics as well.

Today Clarkson leads the publishing and photography company Clarkson Creative, headquartered in downtown Denver. Almost 25 years ago Clarkson founded and continues to run the very successful Summit Workshops that feature some of photojournalism’s most successful photographers and visual artists on the faculties.

In 1972 Clarkson received NPPA’s highest honor, the Joseph A. Sprague Memorial Award, for his lifetime of contributions to photojournalism and the organization. He was also the recipient of NPPA’s Robin F. Garland Educator Award in 1978. At the University of Kansas, his alma mater, Clarkson received distinguished recognitions including the William Allen White Medal and the Fred Ellsworth Award, which is the highest Alumni recognition given instead of the school awarding honorary degrees. He graduated from the college with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1956. And among his many career awards and recognitions, in 2011 Clarkson was a Lucie Awards Honoree for his achievements in sports photojournalism. And in 2013 Clarkson’s book “Greatest Photographs Of The American West” won the top award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Clarkson is one of four Founders of the National Press Photographers Foundation, which was established in 1975. He is also a past president of the National Press Photographers Association, serving in that office in 1975 and as vice president in 1974. Clarkson headed NPPA’s Council of Presidents, and in 1995 he created NPPA’s Gala 50th Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC.

As a mentor and industry leader, Clarkson is known for hiring many of today’s most creative people, each exhibiting great people skills and a high degree of energy and passion. Whether at the intern level or for top publications, Clarkson’s legacy is to select photojournalists for their ability to learn, discover, and practice good journalism.

Author: Coburn Dukehart, Photographer: Michael Forsberg

Photographer Michael Forsberg is a patient man. A very. Patient. Man.

This trait came in extremely useful during an assignment to photograph swift foxes in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland in western South Dakota. Forsberg visited the prairielands multiple times over a three-year period to capture images of the tiny canids, which are about the size of a house cat.

This involved an extreme amount of lying and waiting in photo blinds—small camouflaged tents that he could barely sit up in. He would enter the tent before sunrise and stay there until the sun went down, sometimes even spending the night. And he very rarely shot photos.

“They don’t like human presence, so you have to let them come to you on their terms, not the other way around.” PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL FORSBERG

5:00 am. Summer solstice. Rain and no sunrise. Winds out of the north 20 mph and gusty. No foxes up and no movement on the prairie dog town minus a few horned larks shuffling in grass. Their calls sound like the tinkling of little bells. A lone pronghorn doe that bedded down overnight on the p-dog town is facing south chewing her cud.

8:30 am. Rain stopped but winds continue. No foxes.

11:00 am. No foxes.

1:30 pm. Still no foxes…

4:00 pm. Finally. A fox pup pokes its head out of the den and looks my way.

And so it went for more than 100 days in the field, over the course of three years, as he slowly built a collection of images showing the playful pups and their predator parents in their natural environment. (Check out the video at the top of the page.)

A swift fox mother is seen with her pups in the Buffalo Gap Grasslands National Grassland in western South Dakota.PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL FORSBERG

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For more of Michael Forsberg’s incredible journey, and to view the video of the elusive Swift Fox, visit:

The 2014 Summit Adventure Workshop has arrived!

Summit Adventure students capture photos of extreme athletes in their element.

At Summit Adventure you learn from the best adventure photographers in the business.

Set in Jackson Hole, WY, Summit Adventure students take photos in breathtaking places.

Starting on September 20, students from around the world will gather in the beautiful town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming to begin what will be for many of them an absolutely unforgettable experience.

Adventure students have the pleasure of being taught by some of the world’s best adventure photographers and instructors, including: Keith Ladzinski, Corey Rich and Lucas Gilman, among others.

In addition to being in the presence of professional and inspirational photographers, Summit Adventure students will also be in the presence of incredibly talented athletes. Whether it’s photographing a rock-climber on the edge of a cliff or a kayaker rowing through rushing rapids, students will be thrust right into the action where they can get the best view of the adventure.

For continuous updates and student-taken photos from the Summit Adventure Workshop,

follow us on social media:

Instagram – summitworkshops

Twitter – @summitworkshops

Facebook – Summit Series of Photography

Many of us live in cities nowadays, in fact almost 80% of the world’s population lives in, or near, a large city. While it is fantastic to be out in nature, photographing the remote seascape scenes or the snow capped mountains, that is not possible for most photographers, everyday. That might mean that you don’t photograph for weeks at a time. As you probably know by now, to make big improvements in your photography you need to practice, practice, and practice some more.

Living in a city has its own scenes that are great to photograph, this is why street photography is such a popular genre of photography. These urban landscapes can not only be interesting, but you can make some very powerful images in an urban or city setting. Here are some pointers on how to create amazing urban landscape and street photography images.

1. Urban landscapes are the same as rural landscapes

Ok, not visually maybe, but in the way you approach them. In traditional landscape photography you will use a leading line to draw the eye into the scene. You will make sure that there is foreground interest that holds the viewers eye. You will usecomposition guidelines to set up your shot. This is all true for urban landscapes too. Visually design your scene as you would when you photograph a landscape scene. Be sure that the scene has a good background, a strong mid ground and a compelling foreground. This is not a rule, but it will help when you set up your shot.

2. The mundane becomes unusual

We have all seen pretty much all the objects in a city. The fire hydrants, the mailboxes and the scenes all look familiar to us city dwellers. In urban landscapes it’s not only about the architecture or the street scenes, it is about making those well know objects look different or interesting. Think of the time of day that you photograph. Late afternoon sunlight, warm light can make a fire hydrant or mailbox look somehow magical. Graffiti can look gritty, textured, and interesting in the soft light. Look at how you can change the angle or lines in a normal scene. Come froma different angle and see how that change makes all the difference to making mundane objects seem different.